


Witch Haunt

by EvilMuffins



Category: Dangan Ronpa, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: 52nd Killing Game (Dangan Ronpa), F/M, Pre-Game Amami Rantaro, Pre-Game Personalities (New Dangan Ronpa V3)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:34:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22672624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvilMuffins/pseuds/EvilMuffins
Summary: He had taken her by the hand and ran...ran...ran. He couldn't save everyone, Rantarou saw that now—knew it from the start—but the warm hand clasped within his own belonged to someone, someone so smart, creative, and not nearly as plain as she would have the others believe. Tsumugi was alive and he would keep it that way.
Relationships: Amami Rantarou/Shirogane Tsumugi
Comments: 7
Kudos: 41
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 5





	Witch Haunt

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TeamMike](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeamMike/gifts).



“Maybe we'll starve,” Tsumugi commented mildly, holding her hand up to the beam of light filtering in between the bars of the solitary window, set in between the mildewed bricks.

“Nah...” Rantarou said, continuing to pace the cell. “I've been through worse and I'm still here. It's no big deal, ya know?”

Tsumugi sighed, taking off her glasses and wiping them on the hem of her skirt. “I should have grabbed a handful of peanuts from the bar in my lab at least...”

“We had to get outta there too fast, and you know it. Cut yourself some slack. If we can't be kind to ourselves in a place like this, who else will?” Rantarou paused, stopping to take in the form of Tsumugi, legs crossed on the filthy floor as she rested in the corner. It was always so strange how different a person could look without their glasses, Rantarou thought. Almost as if she were an entirely different person than the one he had woken up beside on that first morning in the castle.

“You will.” Tsumugi chuckled, rolling her eyes. “It's plain to see that you're the kindest one here... out of everyone's who's left anyway. You're like a knight in shining armor or something, like a prince out of an anime. Kind of like Utena but, like, as a guy.”

Rantarou shrugged. “I'm just an adventurer. You see things out there, out in the world. Makes you wanna be a better person, I guess.”

As he spoke, the pounding above them grew louder, bits of plaster crumbling off the ceiling, just narrowly missing the top of Tsumugi's head. She frowned, redoubling her vain efforts to clean the dust from her lenses.

“They'll find us soon,” she mused. “Do you think they're still killing each other up there?”

“It's possible.” There was no sense in skirting around it, especially not after the double murder that had occurred just hours earlier. The memory of the carnage churned his stomach, making him suddenly glad for their lack of food. Rantarou grimaced.

He had taken her by the hand and ran...ran... _ran_. He couldn't save everyone, Rantarou saw that now— _knew it from the start_ —but the warm hand clasped within his own belonged to someone, someone so smart, creative, and not nearly as plain as she would have the others believe. Tsumugi was _alive_ and he would keep it that way.

“If we can't get out, they can't get in, right?” Tsumugi asked, an edge of concern just beginning to encroach upon her voice. Finally finding her feet and standing as well, Tsumugi peered out into the dimly lit hallway through the narrow bars set into the cell door. “I'm sorry that I shut us up in here. I didn't even think about the lock or key. I just wanted to get away from them.”

Ironic that the Super Highschool Level Escape Artist had been the first one among them to meet her end, Rantarou thought. If he had possessed more of a morbid sense of humor, he might have laughed.

The person he was before waking up in the castle only to witness unspeakable acts of cruelty would have laughed.

“We can't know that until they find us down here and try it.” He didn't want to lie to her. Tsumugi could always be counted on to be honest with him; she deserved the same courtesy.

The entrance dungeon was well-hidden at least. Rantarou had only stumbled on the trap-door by chance while exploring one evening.

With a huff of boredom, Tsumugi slid back down onto the floor, drawing her knees up to her chest. “It does make you wonder what good they thought someone as plain as the Super Highschool Level Bartender would be in a killing game... Especially one held in an abandoned wizarding school, of all places. It's like Little Witch Academia... if the little girls all decided to murder each other, I mean.”

Rantarou settled in beside Tsumugi, shoulder bumping up against her. She didn't pull away. “You're a good listener. People need that in a place like this.”

At times, Rantarou did wonder if he were too open with her when they would hang out for their daily chats in the banquet hall, but he also knew that he had nothing to hide.

“Hmm,” Tsumugi hummed, letting her head fall softly onto Rantarou's shoulder.

“Do you ever braid your hair?” Rantarou asked curiously, taking a long blue strand into his hand before lazily running his fingers through it.

“Not really. I think I'd rather just wear a wig than go through all that trouble.”

Rantarou couldn't tell if she were kidding, but he began to separate the strand into three thinner ones, intertwining them—up and over, up and over—as the ceiling above grew eerily quiet.

“There ya go. Pretty.” Rantarou pressed a kiss to the end of the completed plait. It would come lose as soon as she moved, seeing as neither of them had a hair-tie on them, but he had learned to appreciate beauty in the moment since arriving there.

Tsumugi only smiled, snuggling into Rantarou's side only deeper as he closed his eyes, letting his head rest back against the wall.

The wall moved.

It shouldn't have come as a surprise, really, considering how they were supposedly locked in a school for magic. Still, the bricks shifting directly behind them caused both students to startle, sending them nearly toppling backward into the dark passage that had just been revealed.

“C'mon. We're getting out.” Without a second thought, Rantarou motioned for Tsumugi to follow him into the cramped tunnel, no wider than a crawl-space. His instincts had only served him right so far; the two of them were still alive at least.

Tsumugi giggled, getting down onto her hands and knees in order to follow. “Are you sure you haven't been hiding your true talent from us all along? I'd say you're more like the Super Highschool Level Survivor.”

“Yeah,” he agreed with a half-hearted laugh. They were both alive so far.

As they crawled through the dark tunnel, it occurred briefly to Rantarou that with Tsumugi situated directly behind him, and no room for him to turn, she could easily kill him if she had wanted. Stab him in the back, or bludgeon him with a concealed object...

Immediately, he dismissed the stray bout of paranoia.

Shirogane Tsumugi was someone that he could trust.

**Author's Note:**

> Tsumugi would host Anime Trivia Tuesdays every week in the bar she worked at before participating in season 52. They were not a success.


End file.
